With an estimated 400 to 500 community members at last week’s meeting, the Lakeside City Alliance organization presented information to stakeholders concerning the possibility of a city of Lakeside.

Mary Kay Woodworth, chair of the organizing committee, said the group has only been in existence for a few weeks, but with the momentum of recent incorporations of Dunwoody and Brookhaven and annexations with the city of Chamblee, it has made Lakeside-area residents curious about the process.

“We are a nonprofit that’s made up of neighbors of DeKalb County to study whether the formation of a city is both necessary and feasible to be able to provide more local control to our community,” said Woodworth.

Local control was a top message of the newly-incorporated city of Brookhaven, and Woodworth said recent events within the county government and school board have spurred more interest in the matter. Similar to Brookhaven, Woodworth said there are about 50,000 residents in the area.

“I think that as we’ve watched the last few years the erosion of the school board, in addition to concerns about governance of DeKalb County and corruption, whether it’s true or perceived,” she said. “… it just seemed like it was right on time to start asking this community are we interested, and can we come together to study whether we should incorporate.”

The group is currently working on the boundaries that are set for the Lakeside High School attendance zone, with a few pieces of the Tucker and Druid Hills attendance zones, as its preliminary cityhood map. The parameters are I-85 on the west, Clairmont Road south, Lawrenceville Highway to the east and Pleasantdale Road on the north.

Woodworth, who was the main speaker at last week’s meeting, said this group is truly a community-driven, grassroots effort.

“It is not driven by a legislator who wants to do this for his/her constituents,” she said. “It’s people coming together and I think that’s very important.”

Making sure a proposed city has the right economic mix of commercial and residential is crucial, said Woodworth. And if it does not, then cityhood would not make sense. She said that is something they would evaluate very carefully.

What's next:The Lakeside City Alliance will have more meetings in the near future, as soon as they confirm adequate meeting space.Those interested can view their web presence at www.lakesidealliance.org, www.facebook.com/LakesideCityAllianceGa or http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lakesidealliance/.

I see you have scheduled your next meeting for 2/26 from 7 to 8:30 (see attached). Why would you schedule your meeting at the same day and time as the AGL open house which will address safety concerns with the potentially catastrophic gas regulator station AGL is building near the intersection of Clairmont Terrace and Buford Highway?

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